Pump devices are commonly used to deliver one or more fluids to a targeted individual. For example, a medical infusion pump device may be used to deliver a medicine to a patient as part of a medical treatment. The medicine that is delivered by the infusion pump device can depend on the condition of the patient and the desired treatment plan. For example, infusion pump devices have been used to deliver insulin to the vasculature of diabetes patients so as to regulate blood-glucose levels.
Infusion pump devices often need to deliver medicine in accurately controlled dosages. Over-dosages and under-dosages of medicine can be detrimental to patients. For example, an infusion pump device that delivers an over-dosage or under-dosage of insulin to a diabetes patient can significantly affect the blood-glucose level of the patient.
In some circumstances, an infusion pump device can store (via input from a clinician or a user) a number of user-specific settings that are customized for the particular user. In one example, an infusion pump device can be programmed to store a user's insulin sensitivity (e.g., in units of mg/dL/insulin unit), which can be employed by the infusion pump system when calculating correction bolus dosage for that particular user. In another example, an infusion pump device can be programmed to store a user's carbohydrate ratio (e.g., in units of g/insulin unit), which can be employed by the infusion pump system when calculating meal bolus dosage for that particular user. In many cases, these user-specific settings are manually input into the infusion pump device via user interface buttons on the infusion pump device. If any of these user-specific settings are erroneously input into the infusion pump system (e.g., due to a transcribing error or other error when manually inputting the data), the resulting consequences could lead to improper bolus dosage calculations, blood glucose levels that are unnecessarily too high or too low.
Furthermore, even if the user-specific settings are correctly input and stored by the infusion pump device, other types of errors can result in the user receiving an improper dosage of the insulin or other medicine. For example, if an infusion set cannula is connected to the infusion pump device but is not properly seated at the user's skin, the infusion pump device may dispense a dosage of medicine that is wholly or partially not infused into the user's body.